Penticton

Paved road to Baldy wanted

The approximate stretch of road that the Mount Baldy strata corporation is requesting to have paved.

A petition has been launched to pave the road to Mount Baldy, near Oliver, as one official said it's the only ski area in the Okanagan without a paved road leading to it.

The road from Oliver to the ski area's village, McKinney Road, is paved for 14 kilometres but the remaining 21 km is gravel, which Mount Baldy Strata president Michael Fenwick-Wilson wants to change.

Fenwick-Wilson said more than 200 motorists use the road daily in the winter and that 145 cabin and lot owners use the road year-round. He said the summer and fall are busy times for logging trucks on the road as well.

"During the spring thaw the road is dangerous, pot holed, muddy and often washed out and under water in certain parts," he stated.

"People who visit the ski area in March, a prime ski month, have been heard to vow they will never come back until the road is paved."

Fenwick-Wilson said Baldy Mountain Resorts, the owner of the ski assets at Mount Baldy, is looking to expand the resort to be a four-season destination.

He added BMR is planning to build a 24-unit cabin rental complex in the spring and a private developer is planning a 16-unit condo complex.

"These people, and all of us at Mount Baldy, need a paved road to guarantee the success of the mountain and future developments."

Upon request by the strata corporation, Oliver mayor and council voted at their last meeting to write a letter to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to support the road-paving proposal.

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